Schongauer
Alsatian family of artists. They were active mainly in Colmar in the
second half of the 15th century. Caspard Schongauer, a goldsmith
originally from Augsburg, settled in Colmar and became a citizen of the
town in 1445. Of his four sons, Georg Schongauer (d 1514) and
Paul Schongauer (d Colmar, 1516) were goldsmiths like their
father, whereas Martin Schongauer and Ludwig Schongauer were both
painters and engravers. Georg married Apollonia, daughter of the
sculptor Nicolaus Gerhaert of Leiden; he became a citizen of Basle in
1482, then of Strasbourg in 1494. Paul was a citizen of Leipzig in 1478,
worked in Basle in 1489 and was listed as a citizen of Colmar in 1494.
Martin Schongauer
(b Colmar, c. 1435–50; d Breisach, 2 Feb 1491).
Painter and engraver. A leading figure in the art of the late Middle
Ages north of the Alps, he acquired during his own lifetime an influence
that went far beyond the limits of the Rhine Valley. He revitalized
German painting through a clever assimilation of Netherlandish art and a
sense of local tradition and succeeded in combining precision and
assurance of line with a strong sense of volume. From his painting of
the Virgin of the Rose Bower (1473; Colmar, Dominican church),
which unites refined draughtsmanship and monumentality, to his
engravings, which are delicate yet convey a sense of solid form, he
represents the splendid flowering of the Late Gothic style in the Upper
Rhine.
